November's Newsletter
Hello, everyone!
The year is getting a little too close to its end, oh God. There is so much I want to get done still, so I'd like to ask Mr. Time to slow things down.
Thanks, Mr. Time.
With time slowed down, let us now proceed through the newsletter, which has been released early in the month unlike certain OTHER newsletters.
A Memefied Summary of October
I made way too many memes. I'll put the rest in Discord.
Man, I Am PACKED With Series!
Did you know? Rumors exist that Usurpman - Mr. Usurpman, some call him - is incapable of writing one-shots.
Obviously, there is no credibility to these claims. Please spread the correct word to combat this dangerous misinformation.
On unrelated news, my next release is not going to be a one-shot again. Wow. Crazy.
*points gun* Ignore the evidence of your eyes and ears, fellow degenerate.
On a more serious note, I seem to truly suck at keeping prompt winners down to one-shots; both a good and a bad thing depending on perspective, I am sure. I always tell myself that I'll be careful and make sure the next one is a one-shot, but then go wild. I have come to accept that this is simply how I am built, but it does leave me packed with series to get through, and I do want to reopen for commissions eventually.
I am not really sure how to approach this problem. I have considered that maybe I should slow down on the Prompt Polls, but they've been a mainstay of this page since forever, and I like them as much as you guys - plus, I don't know what I'd do with the Merchant Tier. I guess we'll see what future me does.
Regardless, the next Prompt Poll occurs this December! As I mentioned in the Winner Announcement post, I have no idea if fandom, BBC, or any tags/themes will be restricted. That, too, depends on the whims of future me.
(also, even though it is the #30 Prompt Poll, I have nothing special planned. If anyone has great ideas, feel free to suggest them)
Random Usurpman Writing Notes #2 - Clarity Through Writing
Once upon a time, I did a small segment about the very random topic of how I thought corruption is best when it occurs non-linearly; I.E, asymmetrical peaks and valleys toward degeneracy, not too unlike a stock chart.
I called that segment 'Random Usurpman Writing Notes #1'. I had nothing else to put here and the newsletter felt too short to conclude, so let's have another.
Did you notice? I totally gaslit you. I have no idea what the name of the segment was, but I don't want to go back and check. How devious.
In any case, my random and brief ramble today is that it is very important to outline the general plot beats of your story before you begin writing it; AND it is extra important to have the general direction and ending of the story preset in your head so that you know where to take it, as everything you write must be in service of that; BUT, I don't think it is necessary to have every detail outlined right away.
Maybe this only applies to me, but I think a lot of things only take form after you start writing them out. An outline/theme/character may look/feel a certain way in your outline, but after your put them to paper, they take a clearer form. This is immensely helpful in guiding the outlining of the next details of the story; a foundation of sorts.
Something that happened very often to me back in the day was that I'd outline the whole story first, usually with great difficulty. Then, after I began actually writing it out, I'd greatly deviate from my own outline as the story took a clearer form, and essentially have to re-outline - in essence, most of the outline had been a big waste of time.
Thus, I suppose the conclusion of this ramble is: outline as much of your story as you can, but if it starts getting foggy/difficult to proceed, it's okay to start writing it out to see how things feel in practice. You can then adjust your outline and add to it from there. BUT, you MUST always have your general direction, major plot beats, and ending in mind, or you might wander aimlessly, which is an even worse waste of time.
Thank you for joining me in the Not-Random Usurpman Writing Notes #2. Yes, I am gaslighting you again. Okay, I'll stop.
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With this, November's Newsletter is concluded! I must now return to the shadows, where smut is forged. Keep an eye out, as we'll have a degeneracy pit for Stacy's Got The Wheel - Chapter 5 very soon.
As always, thank you all for your continued support!